Word: schorrs
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Daniel Schorr, a life-long journalist, the question was simple. Could the U.S. House of Representative force him to reveal the name of the person from whom he had obtained a classified report...
...Schorr knew that it could not, that he would go to jail before he would ever divulge the identity of his source. Two months prior to his confrontation with Congress, Schorr, through a public statement, told the House Ethics Committee investigating the leak that he would "not give any testimony about the source." Nevertheless, the panel issued a subpoena requiring the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) correspondent to testify and face contempt of Congress charges if he refused either to appear or to answer question under oath...
...Schorr had provoked the confrontation, not only with Congress but with his employer, CBS, in February 1976 by arranging for publication in the Village Voice, a weekly newspaper in New York, a classified report written by the House Intelligence Committee after its investigation of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) activities. Although much of the information contained in the document already had been made public by Schorr and other journalists, the actual publication of the report piqued many Congressmen, who viewed the incident as symptomatic of a well-known Capitol Hill malady, the inability of Congress to keep secrets...
...crack down on Congressional leaks, the House authorized its Ethics Committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the report's publication and discover who had leaked the report to Schorr...
Sensing stormy weather ahead, CBS waffled in its support of Schorr, suspending him from all reportorial duties until after the investigation. The aggressive but controversial reporter had caused CBS executives, particularly board chairman William S. Paley, some consternation in the past, and they were not inclined to risk on his behalf a confrontation with the politicians who regulated their industry. Furthermore, Schorr's reliance on the Village Voice rather than his own company as a vehicle for the release of the document irritated the network, even though he had offered CBS an opportunity to publish the report before resorting...